Finally the word that had been ricocheting through her mind escaped her lips. “How?”
“Well…” He drew out the single syllable to the length of five. “I might have called in some favors. Tanner owed me. Big time.”
She waved a hand around at the completely out of place and yet completely perfect winter decorations surrounding them as a bead of sweat trickled down her spine in the oppressive heat despite the fading sun. “You did good, Cowboy.”
An unlikely red stained his cheeks, and he dipped his head. “They, um, they finished my house today. The furniture is getting delivered tomorrow. I…” He regarded her through lashes longer than any man deserved. “I know you have to stay with your Gram, I know you can’t spend the night, but do you think you’d want to come over tomorrow? Scope it all out.”
His words cut off so abruptly that Georgia was certain he was going to say more. When only silence filled the space between them, she cleared her throat.
“I just have to check with my dad. Or Paige. See if one of them can stay with her.” She covered the hand resting on his knee with hers. “How…how did you finish it? Where did you find the money?”
Sapphire eyes disappeared behind closed lids for a moment. “I came back for you, Gigi. And whatever happened, whatever screwed up, I’m not going to let that steal the opportunity from us.” He held his hands up. “Not that I’m saying you’ve agreed to anything—”
She cradled his face between her palms, and he immediately gripped her hips in response. “Just tell me, Cowboy. Although if the answer is that you were modeling in your underwear again, we may need to have a talk.”
He laughed and shook his head as much as he could in her grasp. “No, I…” he winced, “I got a mortgage. I’m like a responsible adult or some such shit.”
Her mouth crashed into his just as he finished speaking. She moved closer until she was almost sitting in his lap. His tongue teased along her lower lip, and she opened to the silent request. Hands and fingers grasped at the other in a mixture of lust, need, and a reconnection deeper than the physical that came so easily.
The short, perfunctory ringtone of her phone separated them long before she was ready to end the kiss. She pressed a hand to her chest and took a few deep breaths before sliding the device from the pocket of her dress. As soon as she saw the display, the fire Wyatt had ignited in her veins turned to ice. Every nerve ending buzzed seconds before turning numb.
A shaking finger connected the call, and she brought the phone to her ear. “What’s wrong?”
Paige’s moderated professional tone did nothing to ease her worries. “Now, Georgia, don’t panic.”
“What’s wrong, Paige?”
Her best friend sighed. “Gram had an accident and she’s on the way to the hospital, but—”
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
She ended the call without waiting on a response from Paige. Georgia clicked the phone off and caught Wyatt’s stare.
He cut off her words before they were even formed. “I’ll get you there in less than ten.”
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Wyatt
Twelve Years Earlier
“I can’t.”
Wyatt rolled his eyes, his forehead falling against his forearm where it rested on the frame of Georgia’s bedroom door. “Is there ever gonna be a day where you just say, ‘Sure, Wyatt, let’s do whatever you want’ without fighting me? I’ll wait for it. Just give me a date to look forward to.”
She pulled her lips inward and clamped them between her teeth. “The twelfth of never work for you, Cowboy?”
He quirked up the corner of his mouth, internally reveling in the rose color blossoming on her cheeks. Nearly a year after they started dating, he found himself more attuned with her highs, lows, and in betweens. “Please, Angel.” He cooed the words and reached for her hand, curling his fingers around hers and holding it against his heart. “It’s your birthday weekend. Your parents gave their blessing. And your mom said she’s feeling good today. I promise.”
Her arms folded across her chest and her mouth settled into a firm line. “My birthday was last Saturday, remember? You were here, cake, balloons…ringing any bells?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t get to plan that. Today is all mine, so it’s your real birthday weekend.”
Even though he tried, he couldn’t understand the hell she lived through stuck in a permanent state of limbo, suspended between life and death. He knew she was terrified leaving her house because one day she might come back and her mom—
“Sure, Wyatt, let’s do whatever you want.”
He blinked his disbelief. “That was almost too easy, Gigi. I’m scared to think about what it’ll cost me, but I’ll take it as a gift for now.” He tugged her to him and brushed his lips along hers. “Thank you, Angel.”
Wyatt dropped her hand long enough to grab her light sweater and hold it out for her to slip on before lacing his fingers with hers again and leading her out to his truck. He opened the passenger door for her, but she hesitated before climbing in.
Her brows drew together. “Are you taking me out to dinner?” Gigi’s gaze traveled over his body. “I’m not really dressed for anything, ya know, fancy or whatever.”
Wyatt snaked his arm around her waist, pulling her tightly against him. His mouth hovered over hers. “Angel, you look as beautiful as ever, but don’t worry your pretty little head. You are wearing the perfect outfit.”
Before she could respond, he landed a much more heated kiss than the chaste one he’d offered in her house. She moaned and reached up to hold onto the nape of his neck, her grip tightening as he deepened the kiss. Magic swirled around them, dissolving reality, time, and every other intrusion.
“I love kissing you,” he whispered when they finally separated.
She captured her lower lip between her teeth and smiled. “Me too.”
Wyatt groaned and dropped his forehead against hers. “Get in the truck, Angel. Please. Before you totally derail my plans for tonight.”
Her brows lifted. “Plans? Wyatt Carlisle made plans?”
“One day,” he growled the words as he helped her climb inside the cab. “One day you won’t give me grief.”
Buckle clicked into place, she pressed a hand to her chest. “Aw, that’s so cute. But no, I won’t ever stop. You’d miss it and you know it.”
He shook his head, closed her door, and rounded the hood of the truck, jumping in beside her before he answered. “Damn straight I would. I love my fiery Angel.”
They fell into their normal pattern of easy conversation on everything from normal teenage school angst to Georgia and Wyatt’s future careers and, most importantly, how they’d manage to meld her college with his touring schedule. Never once had ending them been part of the plan. What they’d found was so much more than clichéd teenage puppy love that would result in certain heartbreak; she was certain of it. Wyatt assured her almost every day that they could make it work because they were meant to be different from everyone else.
When he made a hard left onto his family’s long driveway, Georgia squeezed his hand. “Wyatt, if I’m not dressed for a restaurant, what the hell makes you think I’m decent for dinner with your family?”
He chuckled as he sped along the gravel road, bearing to the left to bypass the house. His gaze traveled over the black plaid skirt, fishnet stockings, and black boots she wore. “Don’t worry, Angel, my family is completely disallowed from tonight’s celebration.” He threw her a wink. “The only thing they are providing is location. And food, because I’d prefer to not poison my girlfriend with my cooking.”
“You seem awfully proud of yourself over there, Cowboy. I’m expecting to be wowed.”
Wyatt smirked and lifted his brows three times in rapid succession. “I’m shooting for better than wowing ya, Angel. I’m aiming for speechless.”
Her answering snort soon erupted into full laughter. She doubled over in her seat as he parke
d in front of the barn on the opposite side from where the horses were penned. “When have I ever been speechless?”
Leaning over to release her buckle, he tucked her to his side. “Want me to demonstrate exactly how well I know how to make you stop talking?”
The pink tip of her tongue darting out to run along her lips nearly unwound every ounce of self-control he barely managed to hang on to in her presence.
“Nope, you promised me an epic birthday, and all I see is a dirty barn.” She pushed against his chest with one hand and waved toward his door with the other. “Let’s go.”
He turned to hold his arms out to help her down, and she jumped into his waiting embrace. Wyatt held her close, her feet dangling above the ground. “I love you, Angel.”
She slid down the front of him as his grip loosened, and she smiled. “I love you too, Cowboy.”
His shaking fingers intertwined through hers. He led her to the closed door that normally housed the overflow bales of hay for the horses. An unsteady hand covered her eyes at the same time the wooden plank whooshed open.
Wyatt stepped to her side and leaned in slightly to whisper in her ear, “Happy birthday, Angel.”
The barrier fell away shortly before the tears streaked down her cheeks. All the hay had been cleared from the small room and was replaced with a floor full of sand, palm trees, and beach chairs. In the corner, a blinding spotlight beat warm beams down on a kiddy pool full of water. The walls were plastered with posters for every Tampa Bay team that existed.
She turned and held his face between her palms. Her body shook in his arms like a leaf caught in a tornado. “Wyatt…”
A genuine smile curved his mouth. “You’re homesick. I know you can’t go back to Tampa for your birthday even though that’s probably the thing you want the most.” He shrugged. “So I brought some of Tampa to you.”
***
Georgia
Georgia kicked off her socks and shoes as soon as she released the death grip on his neck and dug her feet into the sand. She closed her eyes and soaked in the bliss of the grainy texture rolling between her toes.
After several long minutes, her lids lifted and she drank in the cowboy standing before her. His posture practically oozed with the cocky swagger he seemed to always possess, but tonight it melded with amusement and love. And sent her libido into overdrive. She crooked a finger at him and beckoned him closer with an inviting grin. Maybe tonight…
“Like it, Angel?” His arms wrapped around her waist, and he buried his nose in her hair.
She pulled back slightly in the circle of his embrace and held his face between her palms. “Like it? Are you kidding me? Wyatt, I…I…” Her mouth captured his. Hard. Passion fueled. Desperate. She broke the kiss, for several minutes only the panting of their breaths filling the space. “I hate you so much.”
His grin stayed in place for several beats before his face fell and shoulders sank. “H-h-hate me?”
Georgia’s teeth sank into her lower lip. This stupid freaking cowboy drove her insane in every way possible. And she loved every minute. “So much.”
Her hands fell away from his cheeks, and she stepped out of his embrace. She found one of the blankets hanging on a tack beside a saddle and spread it across the sand. Georgia laced her fingers through his and pulled him down on top of the thick material.
Wyatt’s Adam’s apple bobbed once. Twice. Three times. “Angel, I—”
She opened her legs, tugging him to lay on top of her body. “You are an amazing boyfriend.” Her lips pressed to his right cheek. “You are more thoughtful than any girl deserves.” And then on his left cheek. “And it has to be hate because there is no way it is possible to love another person this much.”
Finally, their mouths connected. Fire raced through her veins, and every ounce of self-control she ever possessed burned to dust from the raging inferno of their passion. She hoped against every hope that he was paying attention in health class and carried the school issued condom in his wallet. It was her birthday weekend after all.
The hot June night combined with their rising body temperature, and a drop of perspiration trickled down her spine. She lifted her hips and locked her legs around his waist. The bulge barely contained behind the denim of his jeans was too close and too damn tempting.
She ground into him, and he groaned in response. His hand trailed beneath her shirt and sighed, committing every path his fingers made on her skin. Georgia arched into his touch as he rounded to the front of her body and reached the satin-covered globes, daring to dip behind and stroke across one firm pebble.
“Please,” she whimpered after breaking the kiss. “Please, Wyatt. I promise I’m ready.” She flexed the muscles of her thighs around him and offered a wicked grin. “And as of one-twenty last Saturday afternoon, I’m eighteen.”
Since his own birthday two weeks earlier he’d teased he had to keep his hands off her until she was an adult too. Now, Georgia had no problem using his own words against him. “Are you sure, Angel?”
Her every available appendage twined more tightly around him. “I haven’t wanted anything more in my life. I love you with my heart, and I love you with my soul…I am ready to love you with my body.”
Wyatt captured her mouth again. This time, every movement of his hands and his lips were slow and deliberate, nearly bringing her to tears with the reverential touches. “You won’t regret this, Angel,” he murmured against her lips. “I promise I will make this so good for you.”
He moved from her mouth to her neck, licking, nipping, and sucking his way down the long, graceful column. She surrendered to the tides of pleasure taunting her body the way the ocean did along the shoreline.
So consumed by his every ministration, the intrusive ringing didn’t register in her brain for several moments. “Wyatt, my phone.”
An ice bath couldn’t have been more effective. She looked up at him, the color drained from the face that was reddened from passion less than a second ago. He rolled far enough away to allow her to reach for the phone in her front pocket but kept one hand locked with her while the other rested against the small of her back as soon as she sat up.
The phone had been something specifically to link her with home while she was at school or with Wyatt or volunteering at the shelter. Only her family, Wyatt, and her best friend Paige had the number, and all were instructed it was only for emergencies.
Her stomach seized. Nothing good could come from this.
She searched his face for the comfort and confidence she knew she’d find only in Wyatt. With a shaking finger, she connected the call. “H-h-h-hello.”
The space between her stuttered greetings and the first tear had to have been less than two seconds, but every tick of the clock had happened at an excruciatingly slow pace. But her scream, the toss of the phone, and her crumple into his arms made up for it by happening at the speed of lightning.
He stroked her spine in silence and held her in his lap. The stupid freaking cowboy always knew exactly what to say. And what not to.
Grief and gratitude swirled in a conflicted storm inside of her. She buried her face in his neck and gave in to every emotion clambering for ownership.
Finally, after her tears subsided enough she trusted her voice to speak, she lifted her head from his shoulder and met his red-rimmed eyes with ones she was certain matched. “She’s gone.”
She collapsed against him again, new sobs wracking her body. But the glimmer of thankfulness burned in her gut. If she had to be anywhere other than with her mother at this moment, being held by Wyatt was the best possible choice.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Wyatt
Present Day
Wyatt hated hospitals.
He’d never been a fan at any stage of his life, but even less so after his first bad fall. The only thing he wanted to do then was get up and walk around to wipe the terror from Gigi’s face. Her pain had always been too much for him to handle.
Pr
opping an arm on the metal frame encasing the sliding glass door of the emergency room cubicle that held Gigi and her grandmother, he saw the same expression on her face. Only fading when she would turn and lean into the older woman who seemed to drown in the stark white covers of the hospital bed. She tucked a strand of silver hair behind her grandmother’s ear and spoke in tones so low he wouldn’t know she was speaking if it weren’t for the full lips moving.
It certainly wouldn’t be apparent based on any reaction from her grandmother. The woman stared sightlessly ahead, not acknowledging anything Gigi said.
He tried to stay away and give them privacy and respect, but when a single tear trailed down her cheek, the final brick of his resolve disappeared. He’d promised he wouldn’t run, wouldn’t abandon her. Never again. And this was a moment he could prove that.
Slowly he slid the door open just enough to gain entrance. Before he could offer an excuse or explanation, she began crying in earnest. He did the only thing he knew how to do. In three large steps, he closed the space that separated them and pulled her tight against him. She wrapped her one free arm around his waist, the other still clinging to her grandmother’s hand, and buried her face in his neck.
The same helpless feeling that consumed him when he held her in much the same way after the loss of her mother took residence in him once again. He searched his brain for the right thing to say and came up empty, so he kept his mouth shut.
Gigi hiccuped a few times and lifted her head. Her eyes searched his, silently pleading for an answer he didn’t have. “Where the hell are the doctors and what is taking so freaking long?”
That was his fiery Gigi, and damn, did he love seeing that. Almost as much as he loved being the one she fell apart to. It was a privilege he reminded himself to never take for granted again. He had to be smarter than his eighteen-year-old self. “Do you want me to—”
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